English Premier League/ Tottenham 1 Manchester Utd 1: There was pride from Alex Ferguson in his team's persistence and a spurious grievance over the supposed failings of the referee, Mark Clattenburg, but relief underpinned every comment.

The two-point lead that Arsenal had opened at the head of the table could not be dwelt upon when Manchester United had deserved defeat.

It took a goal in the dregs of stoppage time to prevent them from losing a fourth away match of their Premier League campaign. Carlos Tevez put central defender Michael Dawson under pressure following a corner from Nani and the ball ended up in the net with Tevez claiming the goal.

The champions were so jaded that Cristiano Ronaldo, as if bored with conventional awards, looked hell-bent on collecting the booby prize for worst-performing star. He took it unchallenged. Rival bids by Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes fizzled out because their anonymity did not last the course, with the pair withdrawn after an hour.

They are, respectively, 34 and 33. These gifted footballers will still clear the age barrier with ease on occasion, so long as they are not confronted by a team of such purposeful energy as the one Juande Ramos is steadily constructing.

Ferguson, given longer to compose himself, would surely have avoided sounding so conceited afterwards. "There's something wrong when Manchester United are getting seven bookings," he grumbled, as if only paragons are found on his payroll.

Allegations of inconsistency ensued, but the visitors benefited from Clattenburg's sporadic leniency as much as Tottenham.

It was an index of United's desperation that four of their cautions should come in last 25 minutes. The final yellow card, admittedly, did follow the equaliser, when Tevez must have whipped off his shirt in disbelief as much as joy. Dawson had been sent off at Old Trafford the previous weekend after conceding a penalty in the FA Cup defeat. Ramos comforted the player on Saturday by extolling him.

"He is completely fine," the manager said, when asked for a injury report on his wounded morale. "He was absolutely magnificent. Football is the way it is and today he was unlucky." Followers of Tottenham did almost as good a job of being phlegmatic, despite the fact that a first win over United since 2001 had slipped the leash.

Under Ramos the line-up is more organised and apparently fitter. Midfielders such as Steed Malbranque were tireless in the drudgery of marking or pursuing opponents.

In that environment, the right-back Alan Hutton made a confident debut following his €10.5 million move from Rangers, even when Ronaldo tried his luck on that flank. Every Tottenham player got plenty of help in a tight-knit display and the goalkeeper Radek Cerny had just one save of note to make, when he parried a stinging drive from the substitute Anderson.

The contentiousness of Ferguson's pre-match claim that Rooney should stick to being a centre-forward was exposed when the player floundered there. It is United, after all, who have spent years developing him as a deep-lying attacker and it was only when he was switched towards the wing that the side improved. His booking will keep him out of Sunday's Manchester derby.

Jonathan Woodgate, on his home debut, was commanding. Implausibly, in view of his disrupted career, he may be regarded as the durable figure needed now that there is yet more anxiety about Ledley King. Since the tumultuous 5-1 victory over Arsenal in the League Cup his knee trouble has stopped him from appearing in the three subsequent fixtures.

Even without King, Ramos nearly imposed his will. Tottenham led, after 21 minutes, when Owen Hargreaves tackled Jermaine Jenas and the ball, with a slight and inadvertent touch from the falling midfielder's arm, ran to Aaron Lennon.

Edwin van der Sar could do no more than push out the cut-back to Dimitar Berbatov, who shot home.

After the interval, the Bulgarian beat the substitute Michael Carrick and Wes Brown to set up Robbie Keane. The forward shot softly and directly at the goalkeeper, when a 2-0 deficit might have scuppered United.

• Guardian Service